


Enjinia

by EbilMe666



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: #coulsonlives, Alternate Universe, Assassin Tony, I Don't Even Know, I'm Bad At Tagging, POV Third Person Limited, Steve has a brain, Tony Being Tony, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-25 01:04:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1623392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EbilMe666/pseuds/EbilMe666
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony's parents are killed by assassins when he is four. He is then taken in by the order until he is 21. He then leaves to take over Stark Industries. Then the Avengers come to live with him in the tower. Will he be able to keep his secret from them? Assassin!Tony AU. Set after The Avengers and before Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers in any way, shape or form. I do own OCs though (don't worry, they're minor characters)

Four year old Anthony Stark sat on the floor of his room. He wasn't playing with building blocks or stuffed animals or anything else that children his age would generally play with. No. He was playing with pieces of technology, fitting them together and working out how to make them work.

He was being watched over by his only friend and butler Edwin Jarvis. Tony liked Jarvis. He was nice and comforting. Jarvis was always there for Tony when he needed him. Usually this was whenever Tony had seen his father.

Howard was not nice. Not safe. Tony didn't like him at all but he wanted, needed, him to be proud. Howard would always say he was proud of his son to the press but Tony knew otherwise. Howard would often tell Tony how much of a disappointment he was. Tony was a smart boy though, he knew to act like a happy family when they were out of the mansion. He had thrown a tantrum once and Howard hadn't been happy at all, Tony had learnt from that mistake.

Tony didn't talk very often because of Howard. He didn't like it when his father told him to be quiet so he just stopped talking. He could talk a lot better than most others his age but rarely did, even around Jarvis.

Suddenly, there were loud noises coming from downstairs. Tony heard his mother scream. It was a fairly common occurrence so he thought nothing of it. A few seconds later though, he heard something that was not a common occurrence. The sound of screams turning into a strange strangled gurgling.

Jarvis told him to stay put while he went to see what was going on.

Tony was never very good at following orders.

He waited until Jarvis was gone before getting up to see what was going on. He walked through the mansion to where he had heard the sounds from; his father's study. He was hesitant to go inside as his father never let him.

After plucking up some courage and pushing the door open he nearly screamed at what he saw in front of him. His father looked like he was resting his head on his desk but Tony could see the blood that was pooling around him. He also saw his mother. Her throat sliced open and lying on the ground.

He knew that they wouldn't be getting up again but he didn't feel anything. He didn't like the sight of the blood but he didn't care that his parents were dead. It was a hollow feeling, one he wasn't sure if he liked or not.

He also saw the figures in the corner. Both dressed in black with black, wooden masks that had bright colours on them and had glowing contact lenses in. One had two cyan blue lines tapering off at the ends that ran diagonally across the face, crossing in the middle, their contacts were glowing the same cyan colour. The other had emerald green around the eyes, like thick eye liner, and going diagonally across each eye, their contacts the same shade of green. The green one cocked their head and stared at him for a second before Jarvis came into the study, gasped and took Tony away. He hadn't noticed the figures.

The two assassins were now alone in the study with the corpses. "What's going to happen to the boy?" The one wearing green asked as they left through the window. Their voice was going through an enhancer so it was impossible to determine the gender.

"Who cares?" The other asked back. "We did the job, we're not the ones who have to deal with the aftermath."

"Don't you feel a little bad for taking his parents away from him?"

"No."

"Awh, come on Densetsu, have some feelings."

Densetsu stared at the other one, as if trying to figure out some hidden meaning in the words. "Cub, he's too young to join the order."

Cub shrugged. "He's a genius. I'm sure he'd cope, besides, did you see how he reacted to the bodies?"

Densetsu sighed. "Fine," they said, "but if we're taking him then he's your responsibility."

This was rewarded with a quick hug from Cub. "You're the best!" They said. "Now we just have to figure out how to take him."

A few hours later, at midnight, the assassins came back to the mansion. They had cleaned up considerably and sneaked into Tony's room. They woke the young boy up.

"Anthony," Cub said, the enhancer was off and her voice was quite clearly feminine, "would you like to come with us?"

"We'll take care of you." Densetsu said, his voice was masculine.

Tony blinked up at the masked people above him. They were adults and strangers so he shouldn't speak but their tones of voice were soft, like when Jarvis would talk to him.

"Anthony," Cub said, sitting on the floor now, "do you want to become an assassin?"

Tony knew what an assassin was. He knew that they were almost untouchable. That if he became one then he wouldn't have to worry about people mistreating him again. He smiled and nodded.

Densetsu gently picked Tony up. He was slightly surprised when the boy flinched. He then took him out of the window and they quickly ran through the streets to a private jet that they got on. Tony fell asleep again pretty soon.

Densetsu and Cub took off their masks and contacts, revealing them to be very similar looking. Both had a fair complexion and brown hair. They also both had blue eyes.

"You should try to get some sleep too." Densetsu told Cub who nodded and closed her eyes.

* * *

When Tony woke up he was in a strange place. It took a moment for him to remember the events of the night before.

He was welcomed into the order with open arms. They liked having the little kid around and he settled into life at the order pretty quickly. He began to speak a lot, knowing he wouldn't be punished for it, and began training on his fifth birthday.

He was being home schooled by some of the older assassins who had already got their degrees. He took a particular interest in mechanics and engineering although he excelled at pretty much everything they threw at him, both academically and in his training.

When he was eight they brought in some more trainees of his age. He got along with them surprisingly well with three of them and they made a good team. There was one girl and two boys and they all quickly became a tight knit group of friends, almost family. The girl was called Rebekah and the boys were Lucas and Kyle.

Rebekah was small, with dark skin and long black hair and brown eyes. She was tough though and very smart, not as smart as Tony but she wasn't far off. She was feisty though and angered easily. At first she was only in the group because she wanted to annoy the boys but she soon grew to actually like them.

Lucas was the tallest. He had very short blonde hair and blue eyes. He didn't talk often but whenever he did it was always well calculated. He was a pretty private person but he opened up to the group. He didn't really get along with other people too well and so having such a close group of friends meant a lot to him.

Kyle was pretty average height wise and had brown hair and green eyes. He was a strange one and was extremely immature but he still somehow managed to do everything that was asked of him efficiently.

By the time they were ten, Tony was an expert in at least four kinds of martial arts and was doing extremely well academically too, already being more intellectual than the average high school student. He also knew how to speak and understand roughly twenty different languages. The others were a little behind on him but that was to be expected considering that he'd been training for longer than them. At ten they were allowed to choose what weapons they wanted to learn how to master. They were allowed two combat weapons and one ranged weapon or vice versa depending on what they preferred. They were also all given colours. These colours would be what colour their mask would be when they got it.

Tony's was a yellow-gold. He was happy with that, gold was always a colour he liked. Lucas' was scarlet, Kyle's was an indigo blue and Rebekah's was a light shade of lavender.

They all took their time over it, with help from the other members of the order. They all found their first choices pretty easy. Tony chose a three foot katana. He forged it himself with help from the blacksmith and bound it's black handle with gold tape. The hand guard was a simple gold one and the bottom of the handle was the same gold colour.

Lucas' first weapon was a long bow. The arrow tips and fletchings were scarlet as was the handle on the bow. Kyle chose twin sais, wrapped with indigo tape and Rebekah picked twin butterfly knives with lavender handles.

They all went hunting together once they had picked their first weapons and got pretty good at using them. They were slightly put off at the thought of killing innocent creatures at first but they soon grew to love their hunting sessions.

Their second choices were harder. Tony decided to go with a sniper rifle. Not many of the assassins actually used one so he mainly self taught himself how to. After some consideration, Lucas picked another ranged weapon. A crossbow. It's bolt tips were poisonous and scarlet. Rebekah picked what was technically a ranged weapon, throwing knives. They were plain steel although they would later be engraved with her chosen name in lavender. Kyle eventually picked a battle axe. He had trouble with it at first but eventually learnt to master it.

Their third choices were the hardest of all. Tony went with a long, wooden bo staff that he carved. The tape on the handle was his trademark gold and it had a concealed blade in one of the ends. Lucas went with a yari spear, it's binding scarlet. Kyle went with throwing knives and got help from Rebekah on how to use them and Rebekah picked a thin rapier, the handle lavender.

They went to New York when they were thirteen to a section of the order that was stationed there. The section was like a family. It was a relatively small one and everyone knew everyone. Densetsu and Cub had come with them.

By the time they were fifteen they had mastered all of their weapons and were finally allowed to go on their first job. They were all nervous but excited at the same time, their black masks had no markings but they wore their coloured contacts and were to leave a token that marked the order and their colours at the crime scene. The token was just a simple black feather but it's edges were coloured gold, scarlet, indigo and lavender.

The job was simple enough, kill an extremely corrupt cop. He had asked Densetsu why they killed people once and he had told him that they only killed people who were making the world a worse place. The ones who were beyond redemption. He had accepted that. Densetsu had also said that sometimes they did jobs if they were offered enough money although that was usually millions.

The cop should have been easy but Tony had hesitated. He had then thought about all the people who were walking free because of him, murderers being among them and took the shot from his rifle. The bullet hit it's mark and Lucas put the feather on the corpse before they all left.

They went on a few more missions, alternating who took the kill and at sixteen they were given masks. Tony's had golden markings on it climbing up the left cheek from the chin in a techno pattern. It also had the gold pattern coming from the right side of his forehead down to the right eye. He was allowed to choose his name. He picked Enjinia, the Japanese word for engineer.

Lucas' had circles of scarlet in a seemingly random pattern. He picked the name Tagetto, the Japanese word for target. Kyle's had indigo around both eyes and the left had detail like it was cracking with a long crack leading to the chin. He picked the name Ignotus, the Latin word for unknown. Rebekah's had no detail on the left side but on the right it had three thick lines all tapering off at one end. Two were above the eye and one was below. She picked the name Uzhas, the Russian word for terror.

They each began to leave tokens at their kills. Tony's was a single bullet for a sniper rifle engraved with the name Enjinia on one side and with a techno pattern on the other. Lucas' was an arrow, the wooden shaft engraved with the name Tagetto. Kyle's was a throwing knife with the name Ignotus engraved in indigo on one side and cracks on the other. Rebekah's was also a throwing knife with the name Uzhas engraved in lavender on one side and three lavender stripes on the other.

At 17 Tony got his first degree and heard news that Jarvis, his old butler, had died in a car accident. He tracked down the driver who had been drunk when he hit Jarvis' car. That was the first time he ever killed for vengeance.

At 19 he got his second degree and met a young SHIELD agent while he was masked and on a solo mision. He had begun to get a reputation as he was one of the most skilled killers, killing over one hundred and fifty people in the space of the three years he'd been active. The agent was able to recognize the techno patterned mask. He wasn't hostile as SHIELD had a kind of truce with the order but was by no means friendly.

"Enjinia I presume." He had said.

"You presume correctly." Tony said. "May I ask your name?"

"Coulson." The agent said. "Agent Coulson."

"Okay." He said. "What do I owe the pleasure of bumping into you Agent?"

"We heard about a death. I presume that was your work."

"It probably was." Tony confirmed. "Now, if you'd let me be on my way I'd like to get back to my order before they start to miss me."

"You're lucky your order has a truce with SHIELD." Coulson told him.

"You do realize that even if we didn't I'm allowed to do anything in the means of protecting my identity." He smirked behind the mask as he saw the agent step back slightly. "Now, if you don't mind, I really must be going." The agent let him go with no further comment.

Tony dropped a bullet on the roof that he'd met the agent on. He wasn't sure why he did so but he saw no harm in doing it. Coulson had noticed and picked it up.

At twenty one Tony officially retired and returned 'from the dead' to take over his company from Stane. He still took the occasional job but they were very few and far between, only being called on when he was actually needed. Often these were jobs with his three best friends. He continued his vigorous training at night, often claiming to have gotten drunk which was why he was generally tired in the mornings.

The press had been all over him when he returned, asking where he'd been for eighteen years. He told them that he'd run away and been put into the system. It was an alibi that had more than enough proof to back it up thanks to the order and so the press and public accepted it.

He made three robots in quick succession. Dum-E 'Dummy', U 'You' and Butterfingers. They were each AIs with a mentality parallel of a five year old's. He then went on to develop an extremely advanced AI that he named Jarvis after his old butler. When asked what JARVIS stood for he would give the joke answer; Just A Rather Very Intelligent System.

He built a tower for Stark Industries, the power source being an Arc Reactor, an old design of his fathers. He had made a hidden lab bellow the basement and a floor that was even more hidden, underneath the lab that only he, Jarvis and the bots knew about. It was where he kept his gear from when he was an active assassin and where he spent most nights training.

He had problems with trust and getting along with people. The first lesson he'd ever learnt was to trust no one outside of the order. He hired and fired assistants almost twice a week until he met Virginia Potts. She had pepper sprayed his security the first time he met her so she gained the nickname Pepper. He had tried to fire her once but she refused to leave. This made him happy as he didn't seem to get along with anyone other than Stane and a man he'd met one day who soon became a friend, James Rhodes or Rhodey as Tony called him.

Stark Industries was a weapon company so Tony saw no reason to change it, not realizing how many people were being killed by illegal sales of his weapons.

He had been kidnapped after demonstrating the new Jericho missile and even with his abilities he couldn't get away from it. He hadn't been trained to withstand torture. He did okay though and managed to build a miniaturised Arc Reactor to keep shrapnel from an S.I. bomb from entering his heart. He had then built a suit that had cost a friend their life. He had liked Yinsen, the man who was trapped with him in the cave but the man had died so that Tony could live.

Tony had stopped weapon production when he got back. Stane hadn't been happy. The order had though and Pepper seemed to be okay with it too so that was all that really mattered.

Then he had had to kill Stane. That one had hurt him and he really hadn't wanted to do it but he knew that the man deserved it and would have killed him otherwise.

He had become Iron Man. A vigilante. He liked the attention he got from that and it meant that he got to clear the streets of scum again. He also met Agent Coulson for a second time. Thankfully, the man didn't seem to realize that he'd already met Tony once.

Captain America was then found and revived. He didn't remember much about the captain other than Howard had always been searching for him and there was random memorabilia all over his old mansion so he wasn't particularly excited. He did know that it was his technology that let it happen though and for that he was proud.

He had then gotten involved in the battle of Manhattan and found out that he really didn't get along with anyone he was meant to be working with other than Bruce Banner and that was probably only because he was the closest in intellect to Tony.

They had all come to live with him in his tower after that. Except Thor who had gone back to Asgard with his brother.

Tony wasn't sure how he was going to cope living with a super soldier who he really didn't get along with, two assassin/spys who he could probably never trust and a man with serious anger issues while still keeping his secrets secret.

He was pretty sure he'd find a way. Hopefully.


	2. Chapter 2

Before the Avengers could really do anything else, they were ordered by Fury to help clean up Manhattan. While the others were up for it and ready to begin immediately, Tony whined, saying that he needed to fix the suit and a whole host of other things before he could possibly help with the clean up. That hadn't gone down well with Fury, even though he'd been expecting it, he threatened to call Pepper into the room which shut the billionaire up immediately.

The clean up was pretty simple although lots of hard work. The Avengers, other than Bruce, were in costume for the first week but after that there wasn't much need for the costumes, other than the Iron Man suit.

After three months, Manhattan was clear from debris and mostly fixed. Everyone had been surprised by how useful Tony had been once he'd stopped whining. He'd done the most work out of all the Avengers and was really the public face of the group. His philanthropy really showed too, funding hospitals and letting them use the big Arc as a power source till the power returned.

Then the work on Stark Tower began. Tony designed floors to fit the Avengers and had them built as well as modifying the floor that Loki had been beaten on to fit the Avengers needs, it became the communal floor. He also had the rest of the tower fixed.

Once all of the construction work had been done, Tony went back to Malibu. He didn't particularly want to spend any more time with four people who both hated him and he could never trust and he knew they wouldn't want to spend time with him. He felt bad leaving Pepper but she had work to do in New York so couldn't go with him.

Malibu was nice, safe. It had the bots, who Tony sent back at the first signs of trouble, Jarvis and a lot of land, including a beach, that he owned. It was a place where Tony wouldn't have to be Anthony Stark and could just be himself, a luxury that he seldom got to enjoy.

He flew over in a jet, leaving Jarvis to repair the Iron Man Mark VII suit and leaving Mark VI there too, because he wanted to take his training gear and couldn't really carry important things in the suits, just in case.

When he got to Malibu he took the case that contained his assassin equipment and put it on a desk before going down to the lab/workshop to check on the bots. The three of them made it obvious they'd missed him, nudging against him and trying to get their attention.

The second they did that Tony laughed and the mask that he had to wear in public seemed to fall. The smile he gave the bots was genuine and they could tell. They chirped happily in response to the obvious change in behaviour.

"I've missed you boys," Tony said as he patted them on their 'heads'. He then pushed past them to do some more work on one of his cars. Everything was going like it should. Like it had been before Iron Man and Stane's betrayal. He could almost pretend that none of that had happened. That he hadn't been tortured in Afghanistan and that Yinsen hadn't died.

He didn't pretend though. There was so much that he could have, should have, done. He could have stopped weapons earlier or paid more attention to what Stane did for the company.

The next day was peaceful and Tony spent it procrastinating. There were a few things he should have been doing, like new designs for Stark Industries, but they were just too boring. Instead, he took his tablet to the beach and worked on designs for the Iron Man suit as he sat, looking out to sea. That evening he did some training, he hadn't had the chance to do so as often as he'd have liked during the clean up and even though it was highly unlikely that he even needed to keep training, he still liked to be prepared.

There was a floor under his workshop that wasn't exactly secret but a portion of it was only accessible by him, which was where he'd train and keep his equipment when he was in Malibu. Pepper had never asked what was on that floor and Tony didn't ever bring it up. Pepper probably thought it was storage.

That was really how the month went, Tony occasionally doing work for Stark Industries but was mainly working on the designs for the Mark IIX Iron Man suit and his cars. He slept almost as often as he should have, knowing that there was no one who would see him have nightmares, usually about Afghanistan but since the Battle of Manhattan he'd started having nightmares about the wormhole and space.

One day, towards the end of the month, Tony had had a particularly bad nightmare and couldn't stop thinking about Afghanistan. He began working on one of the cars to take his mind off it but it wasn't working.

He spoke to Jarvis and the bots about it and they helped him, they, mainly Jarvis, helped him remember that it happened a long time ago and that he couldn't change the past. Although it didn't really help to get his mind off it he could see that the four AIs cared about him enough to be worried.

He put his spanner down and stared at the engine he was working on. He could see how it all fitted together and exactly what he had to do to improve it so he distracted himself. He worked on the engine for what must have been hours and only stopped when Jarvis lowered the volume of his music and told him that he had a video call.

He quickly cleaned up and took it. He was surprised to see Densetsu, Cub, Rebekah, Kyle, Lucas and Vilkas, the current leader of his section of the Order.

They were all in their training/casual gear, it was black and much lighter and thinner than the actual gear they'd use on missions and had accents in the colour that represented them. Vilkas' casual gear was red with white accents, showing that she was the leader of that section of the Order. Before a trainee chooses a name and is given a colour their casual gear is white with black accents.

"What's up guys?" He asked, knowing that it wasn't likely to be good.

" _Enjinia," Vilkas said, she had a smooth voice and long black hair tied in a bun. She wore her glowing white contacts and Tony had never seen her without them so he didn't know what colour her eyes actually were. "As you've probably guessed, this isn't a courtesy call although we would all like to congratulate you on your astounding work as Iron Man in the past few months."_

"Just doing my duty," Tony said, "what, may I ask, is the purpose of this call?"

_Vilkas nodded to Densetsu and Cub, allowing them to tell Tony. "It's nothing serious," Cub said._

" _We just have to renew our treaty with SHIELD and Fury has asked for us seven to represent the Order," Densetsu finished._

"But I just got away from all things SHIELD related!" Tony whined.

" _Man up Tony, Fury can't be that bad," Kyle said. Tony glared._

"You've never met Fury," he said, "you do realize he'll probably ask the Avengers to be there too?" He asked Vilkas.

" _We do. We assumed that it would seem more likely that Tony Stark wouldn't come than Enjinia though." Vilkas admitted._

" _Also, you don't have to do what the mean man says little one," Cub said_

Tony couldn't help but laugh lightly at that, "that may be Cubby but then the Avengers will hate me even more than they already do."

" _Enjinia. I don't care what your little superhero team thinks of you and we all know you don't either. I am, however, directly ordering you to come with us to represent the Order," Vilkas said, showing her authority._

"Of course Vilkas," Tony said, "I apologize for my stubbornness earlier."

" _You are forgiven," Vilkas said without hesitation. She grinned at Tony, "I'll tell the younger ones that Enjinia is coming, they've heard so much about you."_

"Do they know I'm Tony Stark?"

" _No, would you like them to?" Vilkas asked, knowing the answer already._

"Nah, leave it as a surprise," Tony said grinning. He looked at the other five who were in the room, "it'll be good to see my family again."

" _Oh. My. God. Who'd have known that the great Enjinia had feelings?!" Kyle said, joking._

" _But in all seriousness, it'll be great to see you too bro!" Lucas said._

"Okay, when Fury calls me I shall do my best to get out of it, I'll get on a jet now as he's likely to call soon."

" _Come straight to the Order and bring all of your gear!" Rebekah said._

"Yes ma'am!"

Jarvis cut the call and Tony said goodbye to the bots as he made his way back downstairs. He packed the large case that held his gear and went into a different jet than the one he came in. This one didn't have the Stark Industries logo on it and he knew wasn't being tracked by SHIELD.

With Jarvis piloting, Tony sat and awaited the call from Fury. He got it an hour into the flight, it wasn't a video call like he'd been expecting, just a voice call.

"Fury! What's up?"

" _You are to get your ass back to New York now Stark!"_

"Sorry, can't do that."

" _And why is that?"_

"Don't want to," Tony said, a bored tone to his voice.

" _Don't make me send my agents to Malibu to get you."_

"That would be a cute gesture, the only problem is, I'm not in Malibu," Tony said as he put a hand to his forehead. Fury really annoyed him sometimes. "Why do you want me in New York anyway?"

" _I don't have to give you a reason Stark. I need all of the Avengers to come to the Helicarrier, which is currently located over New York._ "

"Fury, you know better than anyone that I'm a consultant, not an Avenger."

" _That may be but you are the public face of the Avengers and I need you to come here!"_

"Tough luck, I'm busy," Tony sighed and hung up. "Jarvis, how long till we get to the Order?"

"Another few hours sir."

"Okay, wake me when we get there," Tony said before closing his eyes with the intention of falling asleep. He knew that the chances were, he'd have a nightmare either from Afghanistan or the wormhole but he was tired and wanted sleep.

As he slept, he dreamt of the wormhole. The feeling of being lost in space, trapped there and running out of oxygen. When he'd directed the bomb into space he hadn't been thinking of himself or making Iron Man look good as a few people thought he had. He'd been thinking of Pepper and Rhodey and the Order and everyone else he cared about who were in Manhattan. It was only after Pepper didn't answer her phone that he got scared. He realized that he was all alone in the large expanse of space with no oxygen and that if he didn't make it through the wormhole then his body would be lost forever. He had expected himself to die then and in his dreams that was always what had happened.

He woke up in a cold sweat a few minutes before they arrived and could tell he'd been thrashing, panicking. It took him a little bit of time to realize where he was and by the time he'd made himself look presentable they'd arrived at the Order. He grabbed his case and left the jet, slipping an earpiece in as he did so that he'd still be able to talk to and hear Jarvis.

From the outside, the section of the Order looked like a small mansion, this is because it was. Tony walked to the back door, as the Jet was 'parked' round the back. He knocked and a young assassin opened the door.

"Tony Stark..?" She asked, she didn't realize that he was Enjinia as the older assassin's identities were generally kept from the younger ones if they never visited the Order. Tony looked at her and smiled warmly.

"Enjinia," he corrected her as he walked into the mansion. It hadn't changed much and for that he was thankful. He walked through the corridors, remembering them. As he walked through them he passed a few trainees. They all looked at him with slightly confused expressions but shrugged it off and continued on their way.

Tony walked up to the room that he believed to be where Vilkas was and was relieved to find that she hadn't changed rooms in the rotation of leaders.

"Tony!" Rebekah said as he entered.

"Rebekah!" Tony said in response. "Kyle! Lucas!" He nodded at the two of them before turning to Densetsu and Cub, "twinies!" He then turned to Vikas and bowed his head. "Vilkas," he said with respect in his voice.

"Enjinia," Vilkas said with the same amount of respect, "You'll be staying in your old room with the other three, there should be plenty of suitable clothes for you to wear there. I shall introduce you to the rest of the Order at dinner which is seven so I'd suggest gearing up for that"

Tony nodded before leaving with Rebekah, Kyle and Lucas.

The small group were joined by Densetsu and Cub after an hour or so of them catching up in their old room. Tony had the biggest smile on his face that he'd ever had. He hadn't seen his true family in too long. Tony had long since changed into his 'casual' clothes that he'd brought with him even though there were more in the drawers with his colour.

Cub gave him a big hug which Tony returned, "I've missed you little one," Cub said.

"I've missed you too Cubby," Tony said as they broke the hug.

The six of them spent the evening catching up with each other completely. The only thing that Tony didn't tell them about were the flashbacks and nightmares. He didn't want to worry them with trivial things like that.

As it was approaching seven, Tony changed into his 'normal' gear, bandaged up the Arc so the blue light wouldn't shine through, put his mask on and contacts in. He then arranged his weapons on his back and belt properly, the collapsable adamantium bo staff in a holster on his belt, the, also adamantium, katana on a holster on his back that was kept on by a diagonal strap that went across his chest and the rifle on top of that, making an X on both his back and his chest. They then all made their way to the main hall.

Tony was introduced as Enjinia and said hello through the voice changer. He could see the one young assassin who knew that he was Tony Stark, she was eagerly looking at him, waiting for him to reveal himself.

He took the mask off and there was a collective gasp as people realized he was famous. He knew he was going to be swarmed after dinner and be stared at throughout but he didn't mind. The Order were his family and so they deserved to know who he was.

After dinner, which he'd spent at a table with the other six and a few other members of the Order who he had spoken to a little, he was indeed swarmed by the trainees. Lucas, Kyle and Rebekah watched for a while smirks on their face before eventually saving Tony. They had been surprised by how well he'd taken it though.

After that, they went to bed. The next day was going to be a long one and they'd need their rest. Tony was still uneasy about going to SHIELD as Enjinia as he was almost certain that someone would realize that it was him. He left his earpiece in, instructing Jarvis, who had already been uploaded into the Order's camera system, to wake him if the nightmares looked at all obvious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked that! :)


	3. Chapter 3

Tony was woken by Jarvis after around four hours of sleep. It was longer than he got most nights. He lay in bed for an hour, just thinking. He wondered how long he’d be able to keep Enjinia a secret from the Avengers and how they’d react if they ever found out. He hoped they wouldn’t. He really didn’t want to deal with saying he trusted them not to tell anyone. Which he didn’t. The only other option if they found out was to kill them all, which was out of the question and never going to happen for multiple reasons.

Tony sighed as he sat up. Thinking about stressful subjects such as this one was making his head hurt. Caffeine withdrawal also probably playing a part in that. He got up, he needed coffee and somewhere he could talk to Jarvis without danger of waking the others up. He let his memories of the layout of the building take him to the kitchen before he began to brew some coffee.

“What am I gonna do J?” He asked as he let the mug of coffee heat up his hands.

“What do you mean Sir?” Jarvis asked into the earpiece.

“You know. The Avengers are gonna find it obvious that I’m… Me.”  
  


“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Jarvis said. Tony smiled slightly.

“As much as I don’t like them, they’re not idiots. Natasha and maybe Clint should be able to recognize my gait and stance if they’re paying attention and then Bruce would be able to recognize me if I talk at all, even with the voice changer.”

“And what of Captain America and Thor?”

“Steve might recognize my figure, he is an artist after all. Thor.. I don’t know. There’s a chance he’d be safe but there’s also a chance that he’d just be able to recognize me like that,” Tony clicked his fingers, “he is an alien after all.”

“Sir, the way I see it, none of them have any reason to jump to the conclusion that it’s you.”

“I guess,” Tony said before downing his coffee, ignoring the way the heat burnt his tongue and throat. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and began to fiddle with it, absently making designs for SI to take his mind off of it.

He didn’t notice the time pass as he sat working on his phone but before he knew it, he was joined in the kitchen by Vilkas. She didn’t acknowledge him and he didn’t acknowledge her, even though he had noticed her enter. She placed a full cup of coffee in front of him. Tony looked up, smiled at her and drank some of the coffee. He looked at the time on his phone, it was still rather early.

“Wasn’t expecting anyone to be up yet,” he said, locking his phone and placing it on the table.

“I can’t say that I was expecting you to be awake. Of all people.”

“What do you mean?”

“You strike me as the sort of person who’d sleep till noon given half a chance,” Vilkas said.

  
“Nah, why’d I sleep when I could be doing work?” He asked, gesturing to where his phone lay on the table. Vilkas raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

The two sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before the twins, Cub and Densetsu, joined them.

  
“Tony, Vilkas.” Densetsu said in greeting as he entered the room.

“Den, Cub,” Tony said in response, Vilkas just nodded at each of them.

“Hey, Tone, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” Cub said, Tony looked over at the older woman.

“Shoot.”

“What happened in Afghanistan?” She asked, Tony froze and didn’t even notice the hand that instinctively went to his chest to protect the Arc Reactor. “I mean, the press said that you were lost but found a village and stayed there till they found you but that’s bullshit.”

“How so?” Tony asked, a noticeable coldness to his voice. He really didn’t want to talk about Afghanistan to anyone.

“Well, it doesn’t explain the night light in your chest for a start.” Cub said, not getting the hint that he didn’t want to talk about it.

“Cub, leave him-” Densetsu started.

“No,” Tony interrupted, “you guys should probably know, just wait until the other three are with us too okay.” He said, half hoping that they’d forget about it by then.

“Sure.” Cub said.

It didn’t take long from then for the mansion to spring to life. People began to wander about the halls, going to lessons or to get breakfast. Tony, Cub, Densetsu and Vilkas made their way to Vilkas’ office where the others were waiting for them.

“Everyone get ready. We’ll leave as soon as you all are.” Vilkas ordered.

“Sure thing boss.” Tony said as he, Rebekah, Kyle and Lucas left. They all got kitted up and ready in almost no time thanks to their experience, they met up with Vilkas, Cub and Densetsu outside by Tony’s jet. None of them were wearing their masks but they were all holding them.

Jarvis opened the doors for them and they filed in. “J, take us to the Helicarrier.” Tony ordered.

“Of course sir.” Jarvis said, his disembodied voice making everyone but Tony and Vilkas jump. Tony smirked at their reactions. Everyones first reaction to hearing Jarvis was always amusing.

It would take them twenty minutes top to make it to the helicarrier. Tony hoped that Cub wouldn’t bring up Afghanistan while they were going there. He wasn’t lucky.

“So, Tony, you were going to tell us about Afghanistan..” Cub said, earning a glare from Tony.

“Oh, this I have to hear!” Kyle said. There was really no getting out of it now.

“Okay,” Tony said quietly.

“Sir, I’m not sure that that’s the wisest plan.” Jarvis said.

  
“Shush Jarvis, I’ll be fine.”

  
“If you say so, sir.” Tony glared at the nearest camera.

“Okay.” He said louder than before. “I didn’t get lost in Afghanistan. I got captured.” No one was sure how to respond to that so they stayed quiet. “The terrorists were ordered to kill me but they were stupid and greedy so they tortured me to try and get me to make weapons for me. When I eventually said yes, the torture didn’t stop. I made the first miniaturized Arc Reactor to power an electromagnet so that the shrapnel in my chest wouldn’t pierce my heart. Then I made the first Iron Man suit and escaped.”

The jet was deadly silent. Tony hadn’t gone into detail but it was still enough for the memories to resurface. He knew that he was bordering on flashbacks but they were things he couldn’t afford. Especially now.

“You were captured?” Vilkas asked after a few minutes, “how on earth did that happen?”

“There was a bomb with my name on it,” Tony said, giving a weak smirk. Vilkas nodded before slapping him on the back of his head. “Owch!” Tony said, “what was that for?”

“You’re an idiot,” Vilkas said, her voice was caring though.

“Sir,” Jarvis said before Tony could respond, “we’re nearly at the helicarrier, I’d suggest putting your masks on now.”

“Thanks J,” Tony said quietly as he put his hood up and mask on.

A few minutes before the jet arrived, Vilkas called Fury, letting him know that it was them. They were cleared for entry.

The jet landed soon after that and the assassins left it and stepped into the Helicarrier. They were greeted by Fury, Coulson and the Avengers - minus Tony who suddenly felt very self conscious.

“Relax sir, you’re going to be fine.” Jarvis said into Tony’s earpiece. Tony was glad to have the AI with him, Jarvis was almost like a safety blanket.

“Avengers,” Vilkas said calmly, her voice changer was off signaling she trusted the director.

“Vilkas,” Fury said in response.

“May I introduce you to my assassins?” Vilkas asked, before waiting for a reply she continued, “these are Densetsu and Cub,” She said, signaling to where they stood either side of her.

“Pleasure,” Cub said through her voice changer. Densetsu just nodded.

“And then we have Tagetto, Ignotus, Uzhas and, of course, Enjinia.” Vilkas said, gesturing to each as she said their name. Each nodded in greeting. Tony hesitated slightly before he nodded.

“Assassins, these are the Avengers, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Thor, Captain America and Doctor Banner. This is their handler, Agent Coulson.”

“I’d heard you were dead.” Tony said to Coulson, the concern in his voice masked by the changer, everyone turned to look at him.

“Why would you care?” Clint asked, breaking the silence. Tony turned to him.

“I have my reasons.” He said.

Fury decided that it would probably be a good idea to move to a meeting room at that point, he didn’t need SHIELD agents to witness any more of this conversation. They all quietly walked to a meeting room.

Tony leaned against a wall and closed his eyes. It was something he often did when he was forced into meetings in the helicarrier and was more a habit than anything else. Fury and Vilkas started talking about the treaty and paper work and other boring things that Tony didn’t much care for.

“Avengers, would you take the assassins to a training room? It might be good for everyone to have a little training.” Coulson said, Tony opened his eyes and could have sworn he saw Steve look away from him, as if the man had been staring.

“Of course Agent Coulson.” Steve said, “if you wouldn’t mind following me.” Steve then left, the Avengers fell into step behind him as did Tony, Lucas, Kyle and Rebekah. Densetsu and Cub stayed behind with Vilkas.

Steve took them to the largest training room. Tony and the other assassins placed their weapons down on a desk.

"Hey, Enjinia, what do you say we show these avengers what real hand-to-hand combat looks like?" Lucas asked. Tony smirked.

"You're on Tagetto, I don't know why you're asking me though, you've never been able to beat me."

"I meant as three against one." Lucas said.

"I'm in." Kyle said.

"Why not?" Rebekah asked, shrugging as she walked towards the training ring.

"I can take all three of you just as easily," Tony said, still smirking beneath his mask. It might be fun to show the Avengers what he could actually do for once. "Do you Avengers mind if I take these idiots out before any real training starts?"

"Go ahead..." Clint said, noticing how the assassins spoke like family members. This fight should be an interesting one to watch. Tony put his phone down with his weapons, it was hulk proof but he still didn’t like taking it to fights with him.

The four masked assassins walked into the training ring, Tony was facing the other three. He waited for them to move first and predictably they tried to surround him. Lucas was the worst at hand-to-hand combat so Tony went for him first.

He threw an uppercut that hit it's mark while blocking an attack from Kyle with his other arm. He threw a couple more punches at Lucas but only one got past his defenses before Tony was expertly kicked by Rebekah.

The fight went on for a little while, the Avengers all paying close attention to the assassins’ fighting styles. There were times when it would look like Tony was going to lose but he ended up on top and beat all three of the others. None of them ended up with any injuries and it was obvious that they hadn’t put much strength into their moves.

“Well, congrats I guess.” Lucas said, shaking Tony’s hand. Tony laughed.

“You knew I was going to win.”

“Well, yeah... but…”

“But you thought we might actually win for once T?” Rebekah asked, “like that was gonna happen.”

“Especially since he’s showing off for the Avengers,” Kyle said.

“Whatever. I was going easy on him.”

“Sure you were Target,” Tony said, grinning behind his mask. It was almost like when they were younger.

“Your fighting skills are most formidable.” Thor said.

“Thanks,” Tony said, “we try.”

“I’m sure your’s are all better, I mean you have freakin’ superpowers!” Lucas said.

“Stop fanboying,” Tony said, rolling his eyes. He sat down and picked up his phone. He had designs to finish, plus he needed to check a few things on Jarvis’ coding.

He was pretty expert at multi-tasking so he worked on his phone while keeping an eye on everyone else in the room; making sure they weren’t killing each other. They seemed to actually be getting along quite well, better than Tony had expected at least. Steve then walked over to him.

“Hey, Enjinia…” He said warily. Jarvis stopped playing music and Tony locked his phone and looked up.

“Yeah?” He asked, succesfully resisting the urge to say Capsicle.

“Fancy a sparring session?” Tony stared at him for a second.

“A sparring session with a super soldier, I don’t really want any bones broken today thanks.” Tony said, he knew that Steve probably wouldn’t break any of his bones but he was more worried that the man would somehow recognize him.

“I wouldn’t break any of your bones,” Steve said, possibly too loudly as it caught the attention of Rebekah and Natasha who were standing close by.

“Go on Enjinia, what’s the worst that can happen?” Rebekah asked with a wink. Tony glared at her.

  
“He can control his strength you know,” Natasha said. Tony really didn’t feel like an argument. The easiest way to avoid one would be to just go ahead and spar but then Steve might somehow figure out that he was him.

“He’s still the captain of the Avengers and has super strength,” Tony said, it didn’t really seem all that fair.

“And you’ve been training since you were what? Six?” Kyle asked, becomming part of the conversation.

“Five,” Tony corrected.

“You’ve been training to be an assassin since you were five?!” Clint asked, genuine surprise was in his face; all the other assassins and Avengers were turned to look at Tony now.

“It’s not that big a deal, these guys have been doing it since they were eight,” Tony said, trying to shift the attention from him.

“But what about your childhood?” Bruce asked.

“What about it? I was rescued from an abusive household and raised as an assassin in an order that’s practically my family. I only had a childhood thanks to these guys.” Tony said, it was true. Sure it may not have been the childhood that most kids got but it was better than the one he would have had if his parents hadn’t been killed and if the order hadn’t taken him in; he didn’t need to be a genius to know that.

“Sounds like stockholm syndrome to me,” Bruce said. Tony frowned beneath his mask at that. It really wasn’t stockholm, he’d willingly joined the order and they never at any point kept him there against his will.

“I chose to join the Order.” Tony argued with Bruce, he of all of them should realize the importance of getting away from an abusive father.

“Why would anyone choose this life?” Natasha asked. Tony stared at her for a second.

“Because it was better than the alternatives; because assassins are strong; because I was four and needed to get out of a life where I’d constantly be pressured to be perfect and the press wouldn’t shut up about it if I wasn’t or maybe because I was still smarter than any other damn four year old ever and knew that if I joined the Order I wouldn’t get hurt any more.” Tony said, gradually getting louder as he did so.

“Enjinia. You need to calm down,” Kyle said softly, placing a hand on Tony’s shoulder. Tony ignored him.

“Don’t make assumptions about me when you don’t know anything about me!” Tony practically shouted.

“He has issues…” Lucas said, as if somehow that would clear everything up. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t.

“You don’t say,” Clint said. Tony glared at him.

“Look, I don’t know why you’re all so fixated on me all of a sudden,” Tony said, he really didn’t need all of the attention from either team. He couldn’t help but feel that his would have been so much easier if he’d come as Iron Man instead of Enjinia.

“Maybe because you seem to be the leader of this group and you probably all already know as much as you can about us. We just want to have the same advantage,” Steve said calmly, obviously trying to calm Tony down.

“That actually kinda makes sense,” Tony said, “although, you’ve already seen my fighting style and it’s not like I don’t have a file on the SHIELD servers too.” Technically speaking, Tony had three files. One for Anthony Stark and the little that SHIELD knew about him, one for Iron Man and one for Enjinia. Tony edited the first two often enough, making sure there wasn’t too much information about him or his past on there but he’d only read the file on Enjinia once. It was short and SHIELD really didn’t know that much about him other than the fact that he was one of the most powerful assassins of his order. Tony had smiled when he read that; it was nice to see Fury giving him any form of praise for once.

“Seriously?” Clint asked, “you assassins have files on the server?”

“Of course they do, they’re potential threats.” Natasha said, because she’d obviously read them. Tony was beginning to wonder if there was anything about SHIELD that she didn’t know.

He didn’t really get the chance to think about it for long before the all too familiar alarm went off in the helicarrier. Tony instinctively reached for his wrists to activate bracelets that weren’t there. He wasn’t sure if anyone noticed but he really hoped that they didn’t.

  
“Avengers assemble!” Captain America ordered. Tony began to gather his weapons and arrange them on his person. The other assassins followed suit. “What do you think you’re doing?” The captain asked.

  
“Well, you’d have to be an idiot if you think we’re going to miss a chance to fight a threat to the earth with the Avengers,” Tony said, smirking beneath his mask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey.
> 
> So, it's been an extremely long time since I updated any of my stories and I can't apologize enough for that. I've had some personal stuff going on and I really hope that you guys can understand.
> 
> Thanks for the patience and I hope you enjoyed this extremely late chapter.
> 
> Ebil.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we get started, I just wanted to say a little bit about Plagiarism. I was recently, falsely accused of plagiarizing SlateWalker’s story Sivaas. Me and the accuser have sorted this out now and they’re actually a pretty nice person but false accusations like that can have a real impact on someone.  
> Please, before you accuse someone of plagiarism, read the story you’re accusing them of copying. Just make sure that you’re right.  
> So before anyone else decides to accuse me of plagiarizing Sivaas, I’d suggest that you go back and read it first. If you’re not thinking of accusing me then go and read it anyway, it’s an amazing story!

Tony could see that Steve knew that there was no arguing with him and the other three. Not when they were all holding deadly weapons that they were experts at using at least. He smirked beneath the mask he wore, his team may not have super powers and may be more used to killing from a distance but they were more than capable at fighting close range too. Clint and Natasha were pretty much proof that with the right training, you didn’t need to have super powers to be an Avenger. Tony was too, technically, but he was pretty sure that having a metal suit with an arsenal of weapons was cheating somehow.

Captain America lead both groups out of the training room and to the bridge of the helicarrier to be briefed about what they were going to be fighting. Coulson was waiting for them and didn’t seem at all surprised that the assassins had insisted on joining the Avengers for this fight. It turned out that they were going to have to fight Doombots. Tony inwardly groaned, Dr. Doom was the Fantastic Four’s problem. Richards had better have a good excuse as to why he couldn’t take care of them. He would have whined about it but an assassin that the Avengers had pretty much only just met, talking about Reed Richards as if he knew the guy would be somewhat suspicious.

Each of the assassins was handed a wireless comms earpiece so that they could communicate with each other while on the battlefield. Tony made it look like he was putting his in and then slipped it into his pocket. Jarvis changed the frequency on the one that he was already wearing to be the right one to communicate with people by.

Coulson sent them all off in a quinjet, except Thor who flew to the scene. Banner was informed that the Hulk probably wouldn’t be needed but he tagged along anyway. Tony sulked in the back of the jet; he missed his suit and knew that he’d get to the damned robots sooner with it. He’d never quite realized how slow the SHIELD jets were. He sat down in one of the seats next to a door, that way he’d be able to get out sooner.

“I can’t get into contact with Stark,” Steve said after a few minutes, Tony could tell he was going to get an earful from him as well as Fury when this was all over. He couldn’t say he was particularly looking forward to it. Maybe he could just hide in his lab until everyone forgot…

Since the jet was just taking them to ground level, the flight was extremely short. It was something that Tony was thankful for, he didn’t need to hear anyone else voice their disappointment or disapproval of him. When they all got out, Bruce stayed on the jet. He was near enough that if it turned out the Hulk was needed, he’d be able to get to them quickly but far enough away that he wasn’t going to get hurt.

The others all rushed to where the action was happening: pretty much the centre of Manhattan, near Stark Tower. Tony cursed, if his tower got damaged again, he was going to be pissed. He didn’t really have much time to worry about the tower though thanks to the Doombot that seemed to have come from nowhere.

His katana sliced it in half easily but he was hit in the shoulder by a pretty weak laser when he was taking the sword out of it’s sheath. It hurt. He cursed but didn’t have time to check if it was anything other than bruised from the force of the impact when another Doombot appeared. Tony stabbed it in the head, destroying important circuitry, he then finished it off by slicing it’s chest open.

Captain America was giving them all orders which the assassins were also following although they didn’t speak over the coms, either because they didn’t want to or they were too busy concentrating on fighting the robots.

The fight was going pretty well and the number of Doombots was quickly diminishing. Tony was honestly quite thankful for the fight, it had been a while since he’d been able to use his katana without destroying his own training bots.

_“Why does a man need so many robots of himself?”_ Hawkeye asked down the coms.

  
“Why does he then need to send those robots to attack a city that he knows is protected by the Avengers?” Tony asked back.

_“Yeah, I mean, I know the guys rich but this is literally throwing money away,”_ Hawkeye said.

“It’s not like these robots are actually worth that much,” Tony said as he sliced into yet another one, “I mean, they can’t be made of anything stronger than steel and the circuitry inside them is actually pretty simple.”

_“How do you know?”_ Captain America asked.

“Because, Captain, I have eyes,” Tony said, he just had to look at the ever growing pile of broken ‘bots to see that they were a mass-produced pile of garbage. He looked around; there weren’t all that many left now, this would be over pretty soon.

_“It’s probably not a good idea to stand in the middle of the action not doing anything, Enjinia.”_ Widow said.

“I dunno,” Tony said, shrugging, “I kinda like the view.”

_“This view is not at all pleasant,”_ Thor said.

“The amount of working robots is going down. I’d say that’s a good view,” Tony said before he got hit again. Someone really needed to revoke Dr. Doom’s laser gun buying license. “Who thought giving these robots lasers was a good idea?!” He asked, annoyed.

_“Probably the person who made them,”_ Steve said. Tony rolled his eyes.

_“I think I’m starting to figure out why I’m not a superhero...”_ Kyle said.

_“Did you get hit, again, Ignotus?”_ Rebekah teased, _“I thought you were meant to be good.”_

_“Shut up.”_ Kyle said.

_“I’m kinda glad all of your voice changers aren’t set to the same voice.”_ Clint said.

Tony attacked another robot but as he did, his sword was blown out of his hand. He turned to see there were robots surrounding him. He swore quietly before making a grab for his katana. It was out of his reach though. He instead grabbed the staff from his belt and pushed a button that made it go fullsize. For some reason, he doubted he’d be able to defeat half a dozen or so robots with just the staff though.

“Guys, I hate to be a party pooper but I’m kinda surrounded here,” he said, hoping that someone would show up to help him. He hit a robot hard with the staff, denting the steel exoskeleton but not doing much to slow it.

He was hit another couple of times before Captain America’s shield suddenly sliced through one of the robots necks. Another was stabbed through the chest with a spear.

“Tagetto, Captain, nice to see you two,” Tony said, Lucas threw the katana to him; he caught it, thankfully by the handle.

“I think you dropped this,” Lucas said. Tony knew he was smirking under that mask of his.

Tony collapsed the bo staff and returned it to his belt before he began to slice some more robots with his katana. He, Lucas and Steve dealt with the robots who had nearly defeated him quickly.

“Thanks for the save guys,” Tony said.

  
“Don’t mention it,” Captain America said.

The few remaining robots were taken out pretty quickly and the group all went to where the Captain was.

“Does anyone else feel like that was too easy?” Widow asked.

“What do you mean?” Tony asked back.

  
“Well, Doom sent his robots to a well guarded area for apparently no reason,” Black Widow said. Tony saw her point, that was tactically a bad move on Doom’s part; a move that Doom would never make without some reason or another.

“Who cares?” Hawkeye asked, “we beat them all.”

“Not quite Hawkeye,” Doom’s voice bellowed. They all turned to the street it was coming from to an extremely large version of a Doombot; this one had bigger and better weapons too. “I’d been hoping to draw out Iron Man.”  
  
“Why?” Tony asked, not liking where Doom was going with this. What could Doom possibly want with him?

“Isn’t it obvious?” Doom asked, “so I could finally have that power source in his chest.”

Tony tensed and had to try hard not to put a hand to his chest protectively. The fact that he had an Arc Reactor there wasn’t public information.

  
“How do you know about that?” Cap asked.

“SHIELD hires just about anyone these days,” Doom said, “it wasn’t hard to find out.” Tony was going to have to have a serious talk with Fury about his security systems later. “Of course, Iron Man isn’t here which means I’ll just have to make do with defeating all of you!” The robot then attacked.

It sent out a rocket which landed where the group had been standing just a moment before. Thankfully, Tony was pretty sure they’d all dodged out of the way quickly enough.

_“Now that’s just rude,”_ Hawkeye said through the comms unit.

_“Is everyone okay?”_ Captain America asked, ignoring Hawkeye. There was a chorus of yeses, or words to that effect, from everyone.

_“Okay, so I get that the Arc Reactor keeps Stark alive and all but why does Doom want it?”_ Lucas asked.

“Because it’s a really powerful source of energy,” Tony said, “it could power just about anything.” He saw Steve look over at him, a skeptical look on his face.

_“How do you know?”_ The captain asked.

“I read,” Tony said, “you should try it sometime Cap.” Tony silently cursed, he hadn’t meant to get snarky with any of the Avengers. Before Steve could respond though, another rocket was fired in his direction.

_“I hate to interrupt… whatever this is, but we really don’t have time for you two to have an argument or anything right now,”_ Rebekah said.

_“Yeah, there is sort of a giant evil robot attacking us,”_ Hawkeye said. Tony rolled his eyes.

“So, what’s the plan Cap?” He asked.

_“Thor, try and hit it’s head, the same goes for you Hawkeye; use explosive arrows. The rest of us will try and keep it off of you two, no one get too close and if you have a chance, attack it.”_

“So we’re the distraction?” Tony asked, “great.”

The fight was going pretty well, Thor and Hawkeye kept pounding the robot with everything they had. Thor made it get struck by lightning a couple of times too although that didn’t actually do much. Tony would give it to Doom, when he was making robots for a reason, they were actually pretty impressive.

It looked like this giant Doombot was pretty much ready to go down, just another hit or two by Mjolnir would probably do it. It kept firing rockets and lasers at them all though, despite it’s less than perfect condition.

_“I’m out of arrows!”_ Hawkeye yelled through the comms unit. That was when everything began to go wrong.

Clint running out of arrows was one thing, it was something they could cope with. Thor still had Mjolnir, the robot would still go down. Except it didn’t.

It’s head was practically holding on by a thread but it was still refusing to go down. Tony figured that it must not have had any important wires in the head. He cursed. The other place the wires would be was the chest. Tony told the team.

He looked around at the others, they were all caught up in fighting; focussing on the body now. He somehow doubted that they’d be able to it without at least one of them getting injured, there was no way he’d let any of them get hurt. Tony then looked back at the robot. Maybe one well aimed slice from his katana would take the thing down; his katana did cut through anything afterall.

His decision had been made. He began to run at the giant robot, jumping on cars in an attempt to get to the right height. He knew that he could have asked the captain for a boost from his shield but he also knew that there was no way that Steve would have agreed to that.

When Tony was close enough, he gripped his katana in both hands and lunged, praying that the sword would find it’s mark. It never did.

Tony was thrown backwards onto the ground when a small rocket hit him in the middle of his chest. His ears were ringing and all he could feel pain all over his chest and an even worse pain coming from inside it.

It was a white-hot, blinding pain. He’d be fine for a few minutes, or at least he hoped he would be, but the pain was becoming unbearable. He half wanted himself to black out just so he could get away from it.

He looked up from where he’d been thrown onto the ground when he felt a soothing coldness on his chest. Steve was crouching next to him and his shield was on the assassin’s injured chest. He was saying something but Tony couldn’t make out the words, everything just seemed so distant.

“...nia!” The captain was saying, shouting. Tony tried to focus. He needed to focus for just a few minutes. “Enjinia!”

“Capsicle…” Tony rasped. The voice changer wasn’t working but his voice was inaudible to anyone other than the Captain.

“Tony…” Steve said, his voice was low; probably because he knew that Tony wouldn’t want anyone else to know that he was Enjinia. “Your Arc is broken.”

“‘splains th’ pain,” Tony said, not even caring that Steve knew that he was, well, him.

“How is he Captain?” Tony heard someone else say quietly. He couldn’t place the voice though; he was too tired.

“I need to talk to that computer thing of his…” Steve replied. It was one of the assassins then.

“Jarvis?” The voice said, “Tony, man up and give the captain here your comm.” Rebekah then. The boys would have been nicer. Tony tried, he really did but the pain that shot through his body when he tried to move wasn’t pleasant. He lay his head on the ground again.

“Left,” he said. He felt a gloved hand on his left ear, moving the hood out of the way to take the earpiece out.

Jarvis would sort everything out. Jarvis would make it all better and show them where he kept the spare Arc Reactor in the lab. The shield was beginning to feel extremely heavy on his chest and it wasn’t even helping with the pain any more. Tony tried to push it off but it wouldn’t move. He glanced up to see Steve holding it in place and glared at him.  
  


Suddenly Tony heard the Hulks roars and saw the green giant rip that damn robot apart. It was enough to take his thoughts off of Steve and the shield for now. He smiled softly at the sight, half aware that Steve was saying something again but he really didn’t care what. He just laid on the ground and tried to keep his eyes open for just a little longer. He didn’t succeed.

He closed his eyes and succumbed to the darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you guys think of the big fight chapter?  
> Is Tony going to be alright? What is Steve going to do? I honestly have no idea at the moment… Well, actually I do. You lot don't though! :P  
> I might have the next chapter in Steve's POV of what's happened so far after the prologue and then a little bit more, I don't know though, do you think I should or should I just stick with Tony's POV?
> 
> Ebil.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is in Steve's POV... I hope you guys like it.

Steve frowned as he looked at the screen in front of him. He was getting to grips with the 21st century but the technology still amazed him. He didn’t understand why anyone would want a TV that was so big it almost took up an entire wall though. He supposed that Tony was just eccentric.

_“Captain America,”_ Fury said from the screen. Steve looked at him.

“Yes Director?” He asked.

_“I’m sending a quinjet to take the Avengers to the helicarrier at oh-eight-hundred hours tomorrow. Be ready and be in costume.”_

“Why?” Steve asked. He knew that he probably shouldn’t ask Fury anything as it would both be disrespectful and he probably wouldn’t get a straight answer from the spy.

_“Because I said so.”_ Fury said, Steve could tell that there was no arguing with that.

“I’ll inform the team,” he said, then he remembered Stark who had been gone for a month so far. The genius hadn’t given them any warning that he was leaving at all. The only time they saw him was on missions and even then he seemed like he didn’t want to be there. “What about Stark?”

_“What about him?”_

“Well, he’s not here.”

_“He’s also not an Avenger as he has made perfectly clear,”_ Fury said. Steve could see that conversation playing out. Anthony Stark really wasn’t an easy person to get along with, not to mention that he was stubborn and would always find a way to get his own way. He reminded Steve of Howard in that respect.

Steve just nodded and Fury ended the call. Steve wondered how many members of the team were actually in the tower. He was pretty sure that Bruce was and Thor, who had come back to Earth a couple of weeks ago. He could never be certain with Natasha and Clint though. He half wanted to ask Stark’s computer thing but wasn’t entirely sure where to direct the question or what to address the computer as.

He instead decided to call a team meeting the old fashioned way. He went to Bruce’s floor first.

“Hey Cap,” Bruce said when he noticed Steve’s arrival. “What brings you here?” The doctor asked.

“I need to call a team meeting but wasn’t sure how to talk to Stark’s computer so decided to do it this way instead,” Steve explained. Bruce smiled at him.

“Jarvis,” he said.

“Yes Dr. Banner?” The AI replied immediately. Steve looked around to try and figure out where the voice was coming from.

“Steve wants a team meeting, is everyone in?” Bruce asked.

“Yes, everyone is in the tower. Would you like me to request their presence on the communal floor Mr. Rogers?” Jarvis asked.

“Erm…” Steve began, he wasn’t sure that he liked talking to this disembodied voice or not. “Yes please,” he said.

Steve and Bruce then left Bruces floor to go back to the communal one. They were the first ones there but Natasha and Clint arrived a few minutes later. Thor arrived a couple of minutes later still.

“I’ve been told you requested my presence SHIELD brothers and sister,” he said, well, boomed. Steve would eventually get around to telling him to be quieter in the tower but he had more pressing matters at the moment.

“Yeah, what’s up Stevie?” Clint asked. Steve ignored the nickname.

“Fury wants us all to be ready for a quinjet tomorrow at eight am, in costume,” he told them all. “He wouldn’t say what it was about though.”

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Clint moaned, “I can’t wake up that early!” Natasha stared at him silently for a second. “Fine, fine, I’ll be up,” he said. Steve really wanted to learn that trick.

“What about Tony?” Bruce asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think he’s coming,” Steve said.

“He’s as much a part of this team as everyone else!”

“Then why isn’t he here with the rest of the team?!” Steve asked, surely if Stark actually wanted to be a part of them he’d be there.

“Both of you need to chill,” Clint said. “Stark’s not here and you really don’t have to argue about him.” Steve knew that Clint was right but sometimes Stark could really get on his nerves. Apparently he didn’t even have to be present to do so. Steve sighed. It was almost like the genius was trying not to get along with him. With any of them for that matter.

“Yeah,” Bruce said, “sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” Steve said. The team dispersed, Steve saw Natasha and Clint head towards a training room while Thor went towards the kitchen. Bruce put the TV onto some science documentary.

Steve smiled, the team seemed so natural here. Sure, they argued a lot more than was probably healthy but they were beginning to finally act like a family. A part of Steve wanted Tony to be there too, a part of him wanted Tony to want to be there. A smaller part of him really didn’t want Tony to be there though. He knew that the genius would just fight with him and he also knew that Tony didn’t trust any of them.

He sat on one of the chairs facing the TV and tried to keep up with what was going on. He didn’t understand most of it though. It wasn’t because he was stupid, he wasn’t. It was more because he still remembered when coloured TV was first invented and when a computer needed pretty much an entire room just so it would fit.

He couldn’t even begin to understand how phones worked and he still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of using them. It amazed him that pretty much everything in the floor they were on had been designed and/or built by Stark. It didn’t surprise him though. He wondered what Howard would say if he knew about the technology of the future and smiled sadly at the memory of the man.

The rest of the afternoon went by pretty quickly. Steve retreated to his room after eating though and suggested the others to do the same. Whatever Fury wanted them for sounded important. They’d need their rest. He fell asleep quite quickly. He didn’t set an alarm, he didn’t need to. He always woke up at seven.

He got up, showered and dressed in his Captain America uniform. He grabbed the his shield before going to the communal floor to wait for the others. Bruce, and Thor were already there so they were just waiting on the two ex-assassins.

It didn’t take them long to get there although it looked like Natasha had literally pulled Clint out of bed. She probably had. Jarvis informed the five Avengers that the quinjet had arrived. The group headed to the helipad before getting into the jet for the short ride up to the helicarrier.

  
“So, is anyone gonna tell me why we’re going to the helicarrier, in costume, this early in the morning?!” Clint asked.

“Fury didn’t say,” Steve said. “It seemed important though.”

“Everything ‘seems important’ with him though,” Clint moaned.

“I’m sure he would not have summoned us if this were not important Eye of Hawk.” Thor said. Clint turned to look at him.

“It’s Hawkeye. Or Clint.” He said, “besides, you know how fury is. We’re probably not going to be needed at all.”

“Would you rather not go and then suffer his… fury?” Bruce asked.

Clint rolled his eyes at the doctor but didn’t have time to respond as the quinjet landed in one of the Helicarrier’s bays.

The five heros got off it and were met by Fury who lead them to a meeting room. None of them could quite believe it when they saw Coulson there. Steve was the first to speak.

“Coulson..?” He said. It couldn’t be Coulson. Coulson was dead.

“It’s really me,” the agent said.

“But you died. Loki stabbed you!” Clint said, anger in his voice. He turned to Fury, “you lied to us!” He shouted. Steve was glad that he wasn’t directing his anger at the agent.

“Yes. I lied to you,” Fury admitted, authority in his voice. “It was the only thing that you make you lot focus.”

Steve was glad that Stark wasn’t there. He didn’t even want to think about the argument that the billionaire would have with the director of SHIELD.

“Why are we here?” Natasha asked, “it’s obviously not so you could tell us that Coulson was alive.”

Clint kept glaring at Fury. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to forgive the director for this any time soon.

  
“It’s time for us to renew a treaty with an order of extremely skillful assassins,” Coulson said. Everyone stared at him, except Natasha who didn’t look that surprised.

“I’m sorry,” Clint said, “what? Since when did shield have a treaty with an entire order of assassins?!”

“How is this such a surprise?” Natasha said to Clint.

“You knew about this? Of course you knew about this.” He sighed. “Whatever.”

“Why are we required to be present?” Thor asked.

“Because I said you do,” Fury said.

“The leader, Vilkas, will be bringing six of her best assassins.” Coulson said, “including the most skilled one in the country and one of the most skilled in their entire order.”

“Enjinia?” Natasha asked.

“Enjinia.” Coulson confirmed.

Steve had no idea who Enjinia was or why Natasha and coulson both looked worried. Or as worried as they’d ever allow themselves to look.

“So, you want to have your best fighters present too?” Steve asked. It made sense. Especially since if Stark had shown up then there would be six of each.

Fury didn’t get a chance to respond thanks to a call from the leader telling them that she’d arrived. Fury began to lead the Avengers down to the bay where they’d enter from.

The assassins all got out of the jet. Steve looked at them, they all had at least one visible weapon although Steve was certain that there were more hidden away. Steve found himself drawn to the one on the end, the one with golden eyes and a mask with gold detailing. There just seemed to be something familiar about them.

  
They were all introduced to one another and the assassin that Steve had found familiar turned out to be Enjinia.

“I’d heard you were dead,” Enjinia was saying to Coulson. Steve looked over at him. He was sure that there was maybe a hint of concern under the emotionless, electronic voice.

“Why would you care?” Clint asked.

“I have my reasons,” the assassin said. Steve was definitely going to keep an eye on this Enjinia.

Fury lead them all to the same meeting room that they’d been in before. Enjinia leant against the wall in a way that seemed extremely familiar. He just couldn’t place why. Fury and Vilkas were talking about the treaty but Steve wasn’t paying much attention. He was trying to figure out where he’d seen that stance before.

“Avengers, would you take the assassins to a training room? It might be good for everyone to have a little training.” Coulson said, Steve stopped looking at Enjinia and turned to look at Coulson instead.

Steve had agreed to do so and began to lead the Avengers and four of the assassins to the biggest training room. The assassins proceeded to put all of their weapons down. The one with the circles on his mask - Tagetto, then challenged Enjinia to a fight against him and the other two. Enjinia accepted and put his phone down with his weapons, probably so it wouldn’t get broken.

Steve watched the four of them fight and he had to say, he was impressed. Enjinia took the other three out easily enough and Steve had a feeling that he’d been going easy on them. Enjinia then picked up his phone and began to work on it.

There was definitely something about him, Steve knew that he knew him. He tried to ignore that feeling, talking with the Avengers and assassins. It turned out that the assassins were actually pretty decent and somewhat likable.

After a while he looked over at Enjinia. Maybe, maybe if he sparred with the man he’d be able to figure out who he was or at least why he thought he knew him. He asked Enjinia to spar but the assassin had quickly turned him down, giving him the excuse that Steve was a super soldier so it wouldn’t be fair.

  
He then started arguing with the Avengers as well as the assassins. The way he spoke, and argued, also seemed familiar. Steve tried to calm him down. The last thing he needed was an angry assassin on his hands.

They didn’t get to talk much before the Avengers alarm went off. Steve saw the assassin reach for his wrists, much like Stark would do when he wanted to summon his armour. Stark. Could Enjinia be Stark?

“Avengers Assemble!” He ordered. If Enjinia was Stark, this wasn’t the time to figure it out. The Avengers were needed.

The assassins ended up coming with them to fight Doombots and Steve had to admit, it was nice to have some more people fighting with him. Especially since they did what he ordered them to with little or no hesitation.

They spoke and the nature of the banter almost made it feel like they belonged. On top of that, Steve was almost certain that Enjinia was Tony Stark. He was definitely going to talk to him about it when this was all over.

Then the giant Doombot showed up. Steve’s plan was working until the robot didn’t go down. Enjinia told them to redirect their attacks to it’s chest before he did something extremely stupid.

The assassin tried to stab the robot but was instead hit in the chest by a rocket. Steve rushed over to where the man was lying, unmoving, on the ground. He saw the Arc Reactor, the rocket had done a number on it but it was still shining. The blue light was extremely faint and flickering but it was still there.

  
Steve placed his shield on top of it. The other Avengers really didn’t need to know that Stark was Enjinia. Not now at least. Stark opened his eyes and looked at Steve.

  
“Enjinia!” He began shouting. The man eventually seemed responsive.

  
“Capsicle...” he rasped, pain in his barely audible voice. The mask must have gotten bashed too as the voice changer wasn’t working.

“Tony…” Steve said quietly, knowing that the man would probably be more responsive to Tony than Stark. “Your Arc is broken.”

“‘spains th’ pain,” Stark said. Steve sighed. He needed to know where another Arc Reactor is.

“How is he Captain?” The purple assassin, Uzhas, asked. Steve couldn’t answer that. He didn’t know how Stark was, he didn’t know if he’d be okay.

“I need to talk to that computer thing of his…” Steve said. He didn’t know how to talk to it at the best of times. This was definitely not the best of times.

“Jarvis?” Uzhas asked, Steve nodded, “Tony, man up and give the captain here your comm.” She said. In response, Stark attempted to raise his left arm but then put it down again. It obviously hurt too much.

  
“Left,” Stark said. Uzhas took the comm out of his ear and handed it to Steve. It was definitely not SHIELD issued. Steve just hoped it worked the same. He was half aware that Stark was trying to push the shield off his body.

Steve told Bruce that the Hulk was needed before he took his comm out and put Stark’s in. “Jarvis?” He asked.

  
“Captain Rogers.” The AI responded, “Sir’s spare Arc Reactor is in his lab at the tower.” That was all Steve needed to know.

The Hulk started to tear into the robot, swiftly breaking it apart. Steve looked back to Stark. He really needed to get that spare Arc reactor before the genius died.

  
“Stark, I’m gonna go now. Please try to stay awake,” he said. He was pretty sure that the man wasn’t listening to him though. He left Stark and his shield in the hands of Uzhas and the other two assassins who had gone to their injured friend’s side.

Steve was about to start running to the tower when the Hulk decided to walk up to Stark. The monster moved the shield, almost in a curious way and then, probably after seeing the Arc, he picked the unconscious man up. Steve walked back over to him, picking up his shield from where it had fallen.

“Hulk. Put him down.” He ordered. The Hulk changed the way he was holding Stark. It almost looked protective.

“Hulk protect Night-Light.” The Hulk said. Steve sighed. He really wasn’t going to win this one and it looked like the Hulk actually wanted to protect Stark. Trust Stark to make friends with one of the most dangerous monsters on earth.

“Fine, fine, take him to the tower. Quickly!” Steve ordered. The other Avengers were looking at the pair.

Steve didn’t have time to worry about them though. He had an arrogant, narcissistic, genius who also happened to be one of the most skilled assassins in the world to save. Stark was going to get such an earful when he woke up.

Steve ran to the tower, Hulk was in front of him, jumping off of buildings and the road to get there quicker. All the while being surprisingly gentle with the man in his arms.

The two of them got to the tower quickly. “You know, Hulk, Banner would be much more useful at this point.” Steve said before pressing the call button on the lift. Hulk looked at him and nodded, handing Stark to him before shrinking into Bruce’s form.

“Holy…” Bruce said, looking at Stark. The three of them went into the lift which took them straight to Stark’s lab.

Jarvis told them where the spare Arc Reactor was and Bruce changed it over, following the AI’s instructions. Thankfully his hands were small enough to fit into the metal casing and attach the reactor to the base plate. The burns covering Stark’s chest were bad but not too bad and Steve was pretty sure that no shrapnel had found it’s way into the genius’ body.

“Now what?” Bruce asked. It was obvious that the man was tired. He always was after turning into the Hulk but most of the time he’d get to go to sleep pretty much straight away.

“Now we take him to the Order,” Steve said. “Better them treat him than SHIELD.”

“Agreed.” Bruce said. The two made their way to the roof where a Stark Jet was waiting for them. Steve wasn’t too happy on the idea of letting Jarvis pilot but he didn’t have much of a choice. He lifted the unconscious man onto the jet and, once they were all on, Jarvis set off.

  
Bruce fell asleep pretty much straight away. Steve looked at the two geniuses and sighed. They were going to have to talk about this later. Even so, Steve was glad that Bruce knew. At least that meant that he wouldn’t have to talk to Stark by himself. Everyone knew that that would only end badly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to femaleAJ (on Fanfiction.net) for suggesting that only Bruce and Steve know that Tony is Enjinia. It actually made the story somewhat better than the plan I'd originally had for this chapter!
> 
> I'm sorry if anything seemed OOC this chapter. I'm not used to writing Steve and he's not my favorite Avenger... If there are any parts which seem ridiculously OOC then please tell me and I'll try to fix it.
> 
> Suggestions and ideas are always welcome!
> 
> The next chapter will be Tony's POV again!
> 
> As always, thanks for reading!
> 
> Ebil.


	6. Chapter 6

Pain. There was nothing but pain when Tony woke. Not even just the mild pain of the Arc Reactor every time he breathed, though that was still there. This pain was worse. This pain reminded him of that pain. That pain from long ago.

_A bomb landed next to the billionaire. He might have chuckled any other time because of the writing on it. Stark Industries. He was going to be killed by a bomb with his name on it. One of his own creations. At least it was poetic. He didn't have long enough to react before it blew up, sending him flying backwards. He was still conscious though. At least for long enough to see the blood pooling on top of his bulletproof vest. Shit._

He didn't want to open his eyes. He was scared of what he'd wake up to. What if he was being ammaturely operated on again? Not that Yinsen was an ammature, he did the best he could with what he had.

_Tony woke up again to an unbearable pain. His chest was being cut into. Then his ribs. Then, something cold and metal was pushed into the hole that had been created, squashing his lungs and restricting his breathing. He kept fading in and out of consciousness before he was finally knocked out with what he could only guess was chloroform._

Tony heard the beeping of a heart rate monitor increase. Great. So he was in a hospital or something like that. Damn, he hated hospitals. He heard his heart rate increase even more and then he heard his name being called. He didn't want to open his eyes. He didn't want to figure out who said his name. He just wanted the pain and the memories to go away.

He focussed on his breathing instead. In for four. Hold for four. Out for four. The hold was the best bit. The pain constantly generated from his Arc Reactor wasn't as bad then; when he wasn't breathing, wasn't pushing on it.

Once the monitor was beeping steadily again he opened his eyes, which turned out not to be the best idea. The bright light in the room was effectively blinding. He focussed on the gentle beeping of the heart rate monitor while his eyes adjusted.

The first thing he saw was Bruce. He furrowed his brow in confusion, trying to work out why the scientist was there. Tony heard his heart rate increase again. Man that beeping was getting annoying. He looked at Bruce and tried to remember what had happened.

Unfortunately, his brain kept torturing him with memories of Afghanistan. That damn cave and the electrical burns on his chest that he'd get if water splashed onto the wires of his battery. He was never sure if the torturers did that accidentally or not.

"Relax Tony," Bruce said. Tony wondered if it was obvious that he was panicking.

"How long was I out?" He asked, hoping that there was no panic in his voice.

"About half a day," Bruce's told him. He sounded tired. "Give or take," the physicist added.

"Seriously?!" Tony asked as he attempted to sit up again. The pain that came from that wasn't at all pleasant.

"You probably shouldn't do that," Bruce warned him, "you have a couple of broken ribs along with pretty serious burns which surround your Arc Reactor."

"Why?" Tony asked, struggling to recall the last thing that happened. He looked around the room a bit and furrowed his brow. He wasn't in the Stark Tower medical room and nor was he in SHIELD's medical bay. Based on the lack of equipment he'd be willing to say he wasn't even in a normal hospital. That left just one place. The Order. "Why the hell are we in the Order?!" He asked, suddenly extremely aware and sitting up straight despite the pain it gave him. Bruce wasn't meant to be here. Wait. Did that mean the rest of the Avengers knew too?

"Relax Tony," Bruce said, "what do you remember?"

"We were fighting the massive doombot and then I tried to attack it," Tony said. He frowned. "Then I got hit." He unattached the heart rate monitor as he was finding the beeping increasingly annoying.

"What about after that?" Bruce asked.

"I dunno. I vaguely remember Capsicle being weird," Tony said, shifting where he sat to get slightly more comfortable. He looked down at his bandaged chest and wondered how bad the damage was. He'd definitely had worse but he could tell it was still pretty bad.

Bruce sighed. "You were hit by a missile, Steve put his shield on your chest so the others wouldn't see the Arc and then The Other Guy brought you to Stark Tower where I changed your Arc before we came here."

Tony nodded in understanding. He had a somewhat sullen expression on his face though.

"What?" Bruce asked, noticing the genius' expression.

"You and Steve both know?" Tony asked. Bruce nodded. "Who else does?"

"Well, I didn't tell anyone and Steve didn't either as far as I know."

"Good. I'd hate to have to kill you," Tony said, only half joking, as he started to get out of the bed, ignoring the pain as much as he could. He was wearing the same pants that he had been during the fight.

"Tony, you really shouldn't get up yet." Kyle said from the doorway. Tony turned to face him. The assassin was wearing his normal gear but didn't have his mask on. Tony assumed that during the hours he was asleep his team had revealed themselves to Bruce and possibly Steve, if he was still around.

"I've had worse," he said, standing up. Kyle rushed over to steady him and make him sit back down.

"I bet!" He said. "Afghanistan must have-" he suddenly stopped talking when Tony hit him. Hard. "The hell Tony?!"

Tony looked over at Bruce who was looking slightly confused and as though he was about to start saying something.

"Oh, they don't know?" Kyle asked.

"Of course they don't know. Why on earth would they know?!" Tony said.

"What happened in Afghanistan?" Bruce asked.

"I guess you'll have to ask Tony," Kyle said, shrugging. Bruce looked even more confused. "You probably shouldn't take it personally, he only told us on the way to the helicarrier thing."

Tony glared at Kyle. He really needed to learn to shut the hell up. He then leaned over and grabbed his phone from where it was on the desk.

He had a few missed calls from fury and a couple from Pepper but other than that there wasn't really anything new.

"He's awake?" Steve asked as he walked through the door, holding two cups of what Tony assumed was coffee. He was only just realising how thirsty he was.

"Please tell me one those is for me," he said. Steve handed him a mug and gave the other to Bruce. Tony took a sip of the coffee, while it wasn't perfect it wasn't too bad either. He then turned to Kyle, "go get me some civilian clothes"

"Why me?" Kyle moaned.

Tony rolled his eyes, "Because you probably aren't going to want to see me and Rogers argue about whatever we're probably going to argue about," he smirked, "you can fanboy over Capsicle more later." Steve raised an eyebrow as he watched the two assassins although he didn't say anything.

Kyle sighed theatrically before he went off, hopefully to get Tony some clothes .

Tony leaned back so his back was resting on the wall. He turned to the two Avengers and they sat in awkward silence.

"Surprise..?" Tony said, breaking the silence.

"What the heck Stark?!" Steve snapped.

"What?" Tony asked.

"You're an assassin!" Steve said.

"Well done, Captain Obvious," Tony said with a sigh.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Bruce asked. He seemed more curious than angry though.

"Because it's against the rules and because even if it wasn't, I don't trust you," Tony said.

"So what now?" Bruce asked. Tony shrugged.

"I either have to kill you, take a new identity or vouch for you," he said. "And since the first two options are never gonna happen I guess I'm going to have to actually claim to trust both you not to tell anyone." Tony sighed. "I may not trust you but you are my team, and I have to at least hope that you're not going to out me."

"SHIELD needs to know about this!" Steve said.

"No. They don't!" Tony argued, "do you know what would happen if you told them?! Especially considering that Doom only attacked us for this?" He tapped the Arc Reactor, ignoring the pain that the movement brought him.

"Tony has a point," Bruce said, "SHIELD's obviously got a security issue." Tony was glad that Bruce was there. He was probably the only Avenger who would take his side over Steve's.

"Fine. I won't tell SHIELD," the captain said after a moment's contemplation.

"But?" Tony asked, knowing that there was more coming.

"But you have to tell the rest of the team when we get back to the tower," Steve said firmly. Tony glared at him.

"No," he said firmly.

"Tony!" Steve snapped, "if they're going to be working with you then they'll need to be able to trust you!"

"Then I guess I'll just quit the Avengers!" Tony snapped back, "Iron Man was fine without you before, I'll be fine without you again!"

Steve groaned, "you can't do that!"

"Why not?!" Tony asked.

"You should both just relax!" Bruce said before Steve got a chance to respond. Tony wasn't sure if he wanted them to relax because they were starting to make him angry, which would be bad for everyone, or if he had some other reason.

"Say's the man who is apparently always angry," Tony muttered. "I knew I should never have agreed to this mission."

"Then why did you?!" Steve asked.

"Because the order is my family and it would have been disrespectful not to!"

"Since when did you care about respect?!" Steve asked. Tony glared at him but didn't say anything else.

The trio of heroes sat in an uncomfortably tense silence until Kyle returned with some clothes and kicked out Bruce and Steve before leaving too so that Tony could get dressed in peace. Once he was dressed, Tony left the room to find Steve and Bruce waiting outside for him. He ignored them and started walking towards the gym.

"Where are you going?" Bruce asked from where he was standing by the door to the med ward.

"I should train," Tony replied.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Bruce asked. Tony didn't respond and just continued walking until he got to the gym.

He set up a punching bag, which took way longer than he'd like to admit thanks to the only just bearable pain in his chest. When he started throwing punches at the bag he realised that he wasn't going to be able to put as much weight into them as usual but he did eventually settle into a rhythm but wasn't able to forget the pain that every punch reminded him was there.

As he punched the bag he wondered about what would happen now. Either he'd have to actually quit the Avengers which was something he really didn't want to do. He might not have trusted the heroes but they had proved that they'd always have his back and that was something that he knew he needed, what with his self destructive tendencies. He could even see himself becoming friends with them, even Steve, but that would never happen if he left.

The other choice that Steve had given him was telling Thor, Natasha and Clint which was something he would much rather not have to do. Thor didn't seem to know how to keep a secret, though Tony could be wrong about that, the alien just didn't seem to be the kind of person who would keep secrets. Natasha and Clint did both know how to keep secrets but they were also SHIELD spies so Tony wouldn't be surprised if they told Fury.

If SHIELD ever did find out then it would leave Tony with only one option. Leave the order and the Avengers and take up a new identity. That was something that he really didn't want to do. He wouldn't be able to be Iron Man or Enjinia any more and, worse still, he'd lose all of his family and friends.

He was pulled out of his thoughts after throwing a particularly strong and angry punch that almost made him yell because of the amount of pain it caused him.

"I would say I told you so," Bruce said from where he and Steve stood in the doorway. Tony frowned. How long had they been there?

"Isn't that what you just did?" The genius asked through pained breaths as he walked over to a bench to sit down. Bruce shrugged. "Why are you here?" Tony asked.

"I wanted to talk to you," Steve said.

"I'm really not in the mood Rogers," Tony said.

"Tough," Steve said, causing Tony to groan. He really didn't want to get into another fight with the man, especially when he was hurting and just didn't have the energy to fight back. "You need to tell the others." Tony could tell that it was taking effort for the soldier to remain calm.

"No I don't."

"I'm with Steve on this one Tony," Bruce said. Tony glared at the traitor. "You don't have to tell them straight away but they have the right to know."

"And I have the right not to tell them," Tony argued though there was no real determination in his voice. He somehow knew that he was going to lose this one. Unless he did quit.

"You're tired," Bruce pointed out. "You should think about it when you've slept."

"I'm not that tired," Tony said, "I slept for half a day!"

"Obviously that wasn't enough," Steve said. Tony frowned but he knew that he wasn't going to win any arguments in the state he was in. He at least needed to wait until his chest wasn't hurting so much.

"Fine," he said reluctantly and got up to walk to his room.

Bruce tried to hand him a bottle of pills as he passed him, "you forgot to take your pain meds when you left the medical ward." He explained when Tony didn't take them from his hand.

"I don't like being handed things," Tony said. Bruce apologised and put the pills on the nearest bench so Tony could take them without them being handed to him. "Thanks," Tony said as he picked them up. At least now there was a chance he'd manage to get some sleep now since the pills would hopefully deal with the pain he was feeling.

He then walked past the two heroes and into his room where Kyle and Lucas were waiting for him. "Wheres Rebekah?" Tony asked.

"Sleeping," Lucas said quietly.

"What time is it?" Tony asked.

"About two am," Kyle said. Tony nodded.

"Well, apparently I need to sleep too," he said as he read the label on the pain medicine that Bruce had given him before taking one.

The other two men got onto their beds and Tony went into his. "Night guys," Kyle said softly. Tony ignored him and closed his eyes before eventually falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this chapter is long overdue. I don't know what happened guys, I just couldn't figure out how to continue it or any of my stories for that matter.
> 
> I haven't even watched the films for a while so I apologize in advance if anyone came across as OOC this chapter.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys liked it!
> 
> I'm not sure if this means I'm back. I hope it does but I really don't know if it's just a one off.
> 
> Ebil


End file.
